Views from the Schoolhouse: Insights from Georgia Educators on the Education Profession and Supporting Students

 

Full Report

 

Educators across Georgia describe mounting pressure points on the educator pipeline in a new survey conducted by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE). Many of these pressures existed before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and have worsened since its onset. These pressures heighten strains on the educator workforce and negatively affect students’ experiences. The nearly 4,600 educators who participated in the survey also signal the value of and need for educator input in critical educational decisions at the state and local levels. Key findings from the 2022 PAGE legislative survey include:

 

• About 93 percent of participating teachers report their school districts have difficulty recruiting substitutes, which negatively affects students including missed or delayed instruction, increased behavioral problems, and diminished student engagement.
   

• Over 90 percent of school and central office administrators indicate their districts are facing a shortage of bus drivers, which also has adverse effects on students including increased frequency of late arrivals to school, more behavioral problems on buses, and reduced or eliminated field trips. 
   

• Nearly 75 percent of teachers who graduated from college in 2005 or later carry student loan debt, and over 41 percent of these teachers owe more than $40,000. 

• Over 20 percent of new teachers do not have a mentor to support them during their first years of teaching.
   

• Three-quarters of responding educators believe curriculum should be determined at the local level. Nearly all believe school-level educators should have a role in these decisions. 
   

• More than 65 percent of all responding educators report that they did not have input into their districts’ plans to use federal American Rescue Plan funds to address pandemic-related needs. 
   

• Over half of all teachers would not recommend a career in education. 

 

These findings point to difficult challenges, but there are solutions that policymakers can pursue in collaboration with educational leaders across the state and the educators who serve students every day in public schools throughout Georgia. 

 

Methodology

 

PAGE designed the online survey and emailed a link to all members on Oct. 27, 2021. The survey remained open until Nov. 17, 2021. In total, 4,583 educators from 176 of Georgia’s school districts participated, along with educators who serve in state schools and state charter commission schools. The survey covers issues raised by members and that emerged in state and national policy discussions. Some findings are outlined in this report while others are shared with policymakers through different engagement strategies. 

 

Survey Findings 

 

Findings from the survey fall into three broad categories: pressure points in the educator pipeline, valuing educator voices, and sustaining the profession. 

 

Pipeline Pressure Points: Staff Shortages

 

Schools require more than teachers to support students effectively. Caring adults must serve in a variety of roles, including substitute teachers and bus drivers. When there are not enough of these critical workers, the consequences affect both students and other educators. 

 

Approximately 93 percent of teachers say that their districts are having difficulty recruiting substitutes. This affects student learning in multiple ways according to teachers, paraprofessionals, school counselors, school administrators, and media specialists—the educators who work with students in schools every day. Most of these educators flag multiple concerns about the impact the substitute shortage has on students including:

 

• Missed or delayed instruction: 67.4 percent
   

• Increased behavioral problems: 65.5 percent
   

• Loss of student engagement: 64.7 percent
   

• Instruction from substitutes without content or pedagogical
  knowledge: 62.5 percent

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The substitute shortage also adds to educators’ workload and diminishes the school environment. Extra responsibilities placed on educators when colleagues are absent and lack substitutes include:

 

• Diminished school climate: 53.3 percent
   

• Missed planning period to cover for absent colleagues:
  52.1 percent
   

• Additional time providing support to substitutes: 46.3 percent
   

• Teaching combined classes: 37.6 percent
   

• Missed duty-free lunch to cover for absent colleagues:
  29.7 percent

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Over 90 percent of central office staff and school-level administrators report their districts are short bus drivers, as do 82 percent of teachers. This also undermines students’ school experiences. Effects on students cited by school-level educators include:

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• Increased frequency of late arrival at school: 64.4 percent
   

• Increased time on bus ride home from school: 63.1 percent
   

• No/limited social distancing on buses to reduce risk of
  COVID-19 transmission: 53.2 percent
   

• Increased behavioral problems on buses: 49.9 percent
   

• Reduced/eliminated field trips: 41.2 percent
   

• Impact on school sports and other extracurricular activities such
  as reduced trips/games: 23 percent

 

In surveys conducted in 2020, PAGE members described multiple concerns about student learning and mental and physical health.[1] Educators’ concerns stemmed from repeated disruptions in instruction and reliance on virtual and hybrid teaching, and stretched across grade levels, student groups, and geographic regions. Substitute and bus driver shortages extend these disruptions, generating new challenges for students striving to recover the learning time lost since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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One contributor to these shortages is the limited amount of state funds directed to them. The state’s formula for funding public schools, the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, provides $150 to cover the cost of a substitute for five days per year, or $30 per day, an amount that has not changed since the 1980s. This amount is well below what districts paid substitutes before the pandemic, squeezing their budgets, particularly in rural communities.[2] Faced with escalating need for substitutes due to the pandemic, many districts increased wages, widening the gap between what they spend to cover substitutes and the state’s contribution. If the state allocation for substitutes had kept pace with inflation since 1985, districts would receive about $400 per teacher, or $50 per day, to help cover this cost. 

 

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